Baby planning: Busy women leave it too late for babies

Women who put off having families until their late thirties may be leaving it too late. The risk of infertility increases significantly from the age of 35, a scientist has claimed.

About 30 per cent of healthy women who delay starting a family until they are 35 could take more than a year to conceive. After two years of trying, 15 per cent would still not be pregnant.

By the time they reached 38, more than half would take at least a year to conceive and 35 per cent would be unable to get pregnant at all without medical intervention, according to Dr. Egbert te Velde from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Family Planning Association information director Toni Belfield backed Dr. te Velde's call for better information for women postponing pregnancy but was more optimistic about their chances.
She said: 'Women need to know that if you choose to delay having babies it will take longer to conceive. If you or your partner does have fertility problems you will have less time to sort them out.
'It normally takes an average of six months for any couple to conceive and it can be up to a year.'

The average age at which a woman in the UK has her first child has risen from 26 to 29 in the past ten years. More women now have their children between the ages of 30 and 34 than 25 to 29. Actress Emma Thompson and popstar Madonna are among those who waited until their late thirties and early forties to have children.

Source: Metro, Tuesday, July 3, 2001

Quoted from an interesting article years ago - surprisingly the situation has not changed today. In fact, science has (predictably) got even better and with even better techniques, women are becoming even more bolder with their approach to motherhood.

The truth of the fact remains, all risks are significantly reduced if you have a baby before the age of 35 years. Most women do go on to produce perfectly normal and happy little babies after that age too - its just that some odds increase after that age so if you have the luxury to choose between before and after 35, go for the one before. Women are getting busier and having a baby right at the peak of their careers does not seem like the best choice at this point of time...time changes and maybe the trend will change too and our bodies will adapt accordingly.